Abstract:
The Cetacean and Turtle Assessment Program (CETAP) was sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management and conducted between October 1978 and January 1982 by the University of Rhode Island in outer continental shelf waters of the northeastern United States from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to the Gulf of Maine and from shore to 9.3 km (5 nautical miles) seaward of the 1829 m (1000 fathoms) isobath. Population surveys were conducted by CETAP to assess the distribution and abundance of whales, dolphins and sea turtles inhabiting the study area.

Purpose:
Please contact the contact person for proper use of the dataset.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION: This dataset is a sub set of CETAP extracting animal sighting records from ship surveys with taxonomic information of species sighted added. The full dataset may be available upon request. Please cantact the contact person. Also note that the metadata is in edits. For further details of the dataset or ... questions, contact the contact person. Sighting points that are more than 2km inland were eliminated. Those from 1km to 2km inland can be considered as on-water sightings. Those points have TRUE in [Excluded] field to indicate that they seem to fall on land but may be correct sightings.

DISTRIBUTION LIABILITY: Not to hold OBIS-SEAMAP liable for errors in the data. While we have made every effort to ensure the quality of the database, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these datasets. Also please refer to Use Constraints.

Use Constraints
The datasets should be used with the corresponding transects dataset. Not to use data contained in OBIS-SEAMAP in any publication, product, or commercial application without prior written consent of the original data provider. To cite both the data provider and OBIS-SEAMAP appropriately after approval of use is obtained. Also please refer to Distribution Liability.